Peonie's journey to smart money management

Peonie

and I love it.

It's going to be at least a week until we get the internet up and running, and I'm using our laptop at a family member's house so this is going to be a quick update.

The bank is only taking the first payment on the 1st August, and as we thought the payment would be paid when we first moved in, aka now, we have made our first overpayment of £700. Which will take nearly 2 months off our mortgage. :T :T :T

I'll update my signature next time.

gratefulforhelp_2

Wonderful, wishing you a very happy life there.

Sepa74

Congratulations! That's really exciting!

Very sensible of you to make a payment off the mortgage straight away. And well done being in a position where you didn't need to spend the money on the house like a lot of people!

[Deleted User]

Congrats on the house- hope you are enjoying it!!
And to have made youre first OP within this short time- fantastic!!

Peonie

We now have the internet and I am now able to check my internet banking. As we only moved a few days ago a full month of bills have not gone through the bank. All of the house bills now go through our joint account and have been entered into our SOA.

While we have made a mortgage overpayment my focus will continue to be on saving into our rainy day pot. This financial year I have saved £750 into my monthly saver, this account will mature in September and I have saved an additional £50.

I have updated my signature, it is now:
MFW 214 - overpayment: £700, target: £2,000, achieved 35%.
Annual ISA saving challenge - saved: £2300, target: £5340, achieved 43%.

sutwam

Congratulations on your house

I bet all the stress of the move is worth being able to sit down and look around and love the home you have :j

Well done on your OP as it can be easy to get carried away spending on the house

Peonie

I don't think I have posted our current mortgage situation before, so here it is. On the 1st July 2011 our mortgage was at its highest point at £154,000. Our original mortgage free date was July 2036, it is now June 2036.

We have found out our water bill will cost a mega £546 a year so we're considering getting a water meter. Even if we have underestimated the amount of water we use the calculator said we should save £200 a year, as we can try having a meter for a year I think we will give it a go.

Peonie

This weekend we have been painting the bathroom and second bedroom, but they are still not finished so that's our job for next weekend sorted. I also started my vegetable patch in the back garden. It's not really a 'patch' yet, we're starting off small and have planted a tiny row of lettuce and 2 tiny rows of carrots in the border.

I've also transferred an additional £250 into the ISA.

In the next couple of months I hope to sell a few items to help pay for the construction work.

Peonie

Today the Habitat sale pulled me in, at least I purchased something useful and what we need.

This morning I ripped open what I think is the last box of my clothes and found a pair of summer trousers. It's nice to wear something different, hopefully I shouldn't need to buy another pair for a while.

I have updated my signature, it is now:
Mortgage at its highest: July 2011 at £154,000.
MFW 214: overpayment £700, target £2,000, achieved 35%.
Annual ISA saving challenge: saved £2,550, target £5,340, achieved 59%.

Peonie

Tonight we went to Mr M's to do the food shopping. We spent £72 on 48 items and I hope the food will last us 2 weeks or more. A few weeks ago I decided to see if on average I could spend less than £1 per item. Tonight we failed again. We'll probably spend £10 in the next 2 weeks on bread, milk and a few essentials.

Since moving into the house I have continued to find in my SOA spreadsheet and I think we can make the largest financial savings on cutting the food bill. In June we spent £280 in the supermarket and £60 eating out, and so far in July we spent £135 in the supermarket and £22 eating out. At the end of the month I'll report our food bill. There must be some way to cut it.

Also, I'm surprised to see I've spent on average £66 a month on clothes and all were in sales or discount shops. I'll keep tags on my spending habits before making any decisions to cut this area.